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While Emilia was dealing with Noelle, Crystal and Dixie found themselves in a very awkward situation.
This wasn't the first time that the two of them were 'alone', as Dixie had previously studied from her even while Emilia had skipped out. Of course, the situation had changed greatly since then.
At that time, Dixie considered Crystal to just be a minor annoyance. But now, not to mention that she had moved to class A, Emilia was even staying over at this girl's place!
The first change she could barely accept as not wanting the result of Emilia's efforts to go to waste, but the second one didn't make sense at all!
Of course, if Dixie had wanted to protest, she would do so directly to her princess, and not to Crystal.
She didn't really have a problem with Emilia staying over at Crystal's place for a few days to cheer her up. After all, her princess could do whatever she wanted, and their own relationship wouldn't really be affected by something like this anyway.
But she couldn't help but be curious about how exactly Emilia was cheering her up.
And that was why, after arriving at the restaurant, Dixie decided to follow Crystal inside instead of leaving immediately.
The heroine had already felt a little weird when Dixie had just silently stared at her throughout the entire ride, and couldn't help but frown when she saw the black-haired girl follow her into the restaurant. "W-What is it?"
Dixie smiled. "Nothing, I just wanted to talk with you a little, can't I?"
Crystal couldn't really bring herself to say no, and decided they might as well. Not like she had anything better to do. "Let's go upstairs, then."
Dixie felt a little nostalgic as they took their seats on the same table they used to study at not that long ago. Ever since the semester exam results came out, their 'tutoring' sessions had been on indefinite hold, though perhaps Emilia was still studying together with Crystal.
The black-haired girl didn't know how to start, and Crystal couldn't handle her silent stare anymore as she awkwardly cleared her throat and got up. "I-I'll go bring us some tea, hold on."
And a few minutes later, they were back to staring at each other, but now with a cup of tea in their hands and a tray of lemon cake slices on the table.
Dixie took a sip of her tea, feeling a little embarrassed. "Actually, I didn't really have anything to ask, I just… I was just wondering what you and Emilia did while alone. Do you just study all the time? That can't be it, right?"
Crystal had expected as much, which was why she was feeling so awkward under Dixie's stare.
Recalling how Emilia had made her call her 'big sister' while cuddling her to sleep, the heroine couldn't help but blush. "W-Well, we do study a lot, but we also play board games. Emilia likes chess. And… she's also learning how to cook. Oh, these were what she made earlier, by the way."
Dixie immediately snatched the tray to her side, and stuffed all three of the remaining slices into her mouth, one after the other.
Of course, she was unable to talk for a while as she slowly chewed through and swallowed them.
Dixie would have happily swallowed molten rock if Crystal told her it was what Emilia cooked, but the lemon cake was actually refreshing. The smell, the flavor, the sweetness… the, um, the zing… even the icing was perfect! Everything was perfect! No, perfection didn't even begin to describe it!
If there was a world record for the most delicious lemon cake in the world, it would definitely have been won by the one made by her princess!
On a scale of one to ten, Dixie would rate it a hundred… no, a million out of ten!
'P-Princess is so good at baking cakes?! No, how come she never made anything for me yet? She must have just started learning, un, un.'
If she had known that Crystal, who had been the first to taste test the cake, had 'praised' Emilia by saying they were only slightly worse than her mom's, the knight would probably strangle the girl to death.
Dixie licked her lips after she was finally done, making sure that not a single particle went to waste. "A-Ahem. I-I suddenly felt extremely hungry, sorry. They were delicious, by the way."
Crystal nodded with a smile, seemingly not minding that she hadn't gotten any. "It's okay, I already had some for breakfast earlier, after all."
If Dixie had been paying close enough attention to her words, she might have responded in kind, but the girl was too focused on the few crumbs she had spotted on the plate.
But wouldn't Emilia be shamed if her knight licked a plate like that?
Faced with such a dilemma, suddenly Dixie had a bright idea.
"Crystal! I haven't been here for so long, I can't be such a rude guest after you served me so well. Un, wait here, I'll go wash the plate for you!"
And she didn't give Crystal any chance to refute her at all as she rushed towards the kitchen area with the plate.
The heroine could only sigh wistfully. 'Does she not realize I can see her from over here? No, maybe it's better if she doesn't. Also… she could have at least finished the tea I brewed…'
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Meanwhile, in another part of the city, the hero had just realized that maybe it wasn't such a bright idea to gloat about being able to snag Crystal from Emilia's clutches to the girl herself. "Oh... shit..."
"Goddamnit! That bitch won't tighten up the security around my precious darling, will she? No, she definitely will, that whore! That evil, conniving little cunt! I have to tell that bastard father of mine so he doesn't mess up, ah, but he'll definitely blame me if he knows…"
The hero clutched his head painfully, but suddenly, a bright idea came to his mind as his eyes instantly lit up.
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~ To be continued ~
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DustyDream:
A bonus chapter should be up in an hour or so.
Thank you for all your support! :>